Does Reception always start this late in the month?

[Justjoinedforthis]

Hi everyone. My eldest child is starting reception in Sept, first day is the 21st and not full tine until early Oct. it is staggered, but he is in the first group to start. Just wondering if this is the norm?

No, ours were usually straight in with the rest of the school but I think a lot of schools are delaying reception start this year

You get massive variations by school but yours is on the extreme end.

Our school have seen the light in the last few years and instead of a protracted 2-3 week settling in, they’re doing a half day for summer borns, half day for spring+summer, half day for all and then all in.

They’ve been doing that for 3 years now and have found children settled just as well.

Still not starting until 15 September though so I’ll have 2 weeks of DS2 careening around the house while we’re trying to work as he will have neither nursery nor school....

There is no evidence base on this - it’s more schools getting set in their ways of what ‘works’.

No, ours is starting on 3rd Sept part time then full time from 7th Sept.

Aha thanks for the replies. I am back to work in Oct from mat leave and had been clinging on to just a few child free days before starting work!

Head Teacher here- we normally get our Reception pupils in during the first week of term but have delayed them until late Sept this year due to CV19.
Local schools all agreed we want to settle the rest of the school before we bring Reception in. We'd also hoped that we might be able to do some transition sessions that we hadn't been able to do in July.
Not ideal but to be honest, nothing is at the moment, just trying to find the most workable solutions as things evolve.

When my older DC started Reception, their class started full time on day 1 of the term. Other local schools did a mix of different things (part time / staggered starts etc), but none started as late as your school.

Things may be a bit different to normal this year though, with schools adjusting to different ways of doing things for everyone because of coronavirus.

MinnieLatte So you have some legal back up in breaking the admissions code? I was not aware of any COVID legislation that gave schools the right to not provide full time schooling for reception kids?

If so, could you point to it?

If not, could you explain "'cos of COVID" ? If it's local authority wide, could you let me know the authority so the info can be FOI'd

sirfred I don't work in education so I don't know the official rules but I know the legal age for starting school in England is the term after a child turns 5. Technically this means between Sept 1st and Xmas (Autumn term) none of the Reception age children (ie 4 turning 5) are required to be in education.
So if a school decides to start Reception year 'late' how can they be breaking any rules as none of the children are required by law to be there? General curriosity here.

@bookmum08 - there is a difference between when a school is legally obliged to make a school place available and when a parent is legally obliged to send a child to school.

So a child born between January and March doesn't have to start school until after Easter (parental choice until compulsory school age), but a school can't refuse to provide a place until after Easter.

I believe they have to legally offer you a full time space if you have been accepted at that school. My ds is 5 in September and my nephew is 5 in August so would technically miss reception year if schools could delay it until they were 5!

Ds starts on the 7th at the later time of 9.45 for the first day and then 8.30-2.45 from the next day onwards.

It's in the admissions code, the school must make a full time place available from the September after their 4th birthday.

Admission of children below compulsory school age
and deferred entry to school
2.16 Admission authorities must provide for the admission of all children in
the September following their fourth birthday. The authority must make it clear in their arrangements that, where they have offered a child a place at a
school:
a) that child is entitled to a full-time place in the September following
their fourth birthday;

Now there's obviously some "wriggle" potentially for the school there that September could still be the end of September, but there's specific case law from the adjudicator on this very point:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296261/ada2479_st_marks_primary_bournemouth_16aug13.pdf

@sirfredfredgeorge Why the aggression? Schools make these decisions with the best interests of the children at heart, not with the aim of irritating parents. Most children starting Reception in September have not been in a setting since March and starting all of them full time on the first day of term isn't necessarily the right thing to do. How about trying to understand rather than criticise?

@sirfredfredgeorge

Most children haven't been in school for 6 months by the time they go back in September due to us being in the midst of a pandemic of a contagious disease in case you hadn't noticed. Reception children in a lot of schools often have a staggered start to ease them in. Do you spend every summer holiday/beginning of September berating headteachers about school admissions, they wag they run their schools? Or are you just bored today? In case you failed to notice this year is unprecedented in terms of how we are having to live our lives, adjustments made.

To the headteachers and teachers making the necessary adjustments to help our children of all years settle back in after this, thank you.

Sorry if you feel it was aggressive, I specifically want to know, and because I very much disagree that it is in the interests of the children to delay, and the law makers agree hence why we have that law.

Fundamentally if there are strong reasons why a law should be broken, then that needs to be made public so everyone can support it, or at least understand it. Particularly in this area where it's not something that can be made up afterwards by subsequently acknowledging that there was no legal ability to do it, the damage has already been done, and financial remedies against the school completely inappropriate.

I was just curious to be honest. The children of Reception year whose birthdays are between Sept 1st and Xmas are under no legal obligation to be there so it confused me. In my day children didn't start until the term after they were 5. Reception year didn't exist. The autumn borns started after xmas and just joined the Infants, Spring borns after Easter and the summer borns the following September (in what is now called Year 1). If a school had room you might get a few 4 year olds in a 'rising 5' group but that was down to the school.

@sirfredfredgeorge that's interesting about the legal case, I hadn't thought about it like that.

I have to say I would have thought the younger ones would need more time to settle in, as it's a huge leap to go from such a long time at home to starting school, but I guess school's have their reasons even if I don't quite understand them.

(Incidentally, I work for a local authority as a Nursery Nurse...not trying to have a go at any schools or anything. I am just mildly disappointed, and for mainly selfish reasons!)

I think it's important that parents know that their children have the legal right to a FT place from September. If schools knew that parents were aware then they probably wouldn't suggest some of the crazy settling in patterns that are out there.

Some local authorities make this clear, other stay silent and the schools hope no one notices. I think it's pretty outrageous that schools just gloss over their legal obligations like this.

Parents who are aware and want to exercise their legal right to a FT place from the start are at a disadvantage as they often feel that they don't want to start their relationship with the school with an argument.

Our school seems to do something different every year and don't tell parents their plans until that July. For DD1 it was 8 half days, she turned 5 on one of the half days and was bouncing off the walls at home, rather than being exhausted as I was told to expect. I was on mat leave, so not the end of the world. DD2 started 3 days after school went back, but straight in FT. If she had been in the year above it was 8 days - we didn't have 8 days annual leave left to cover that time and there isn't other childcare available as it's term time.

Ours usually start a week after the older children, then part time for several weeks and full time in early October.

My school does a staggered start as it gives the children some time in small groups and to get used to the lunch routine before throwing them in full time. In my class there is only me and my TA and we simply can’t settle that many children who need support with finding things/being upset easily. In the groups of 10, we can show them round, sit and give reassurance as necessary. If this goes on for more than a few days, we offer parents the chance to bring them early so we can settle them with a member of staff. We use the time they aren’t in to do home visits which our parents really value. Our children are in full time by the end of the first full week (one week is usually a couple of INSET days) so we don’t have any complaints but if a parent insisted we could give them a full time place but it would be with an unfamiliar TA in my classroom as me and my TA are out completing home visits. Our parents get this information in May so we don’t typically have anyone who isn’t able to sort out childcare.

We're doing transition days - 1/3 of the children in each day for 3 days as the children missed these. Then all in the following Monday full time.

Ours is doing 3 weeks of transition. Not in full time until 21st September. I have no idea how I can make it work. We both work full time and used our leave up during covid, when childcare was unavailable and then reduced hours only. We’re not allowed to use relatives or friends and childcare settings won’t take kids for half days in if they’ve been in another setting.

We were given original dates and then amended dates due to COVID. Things have been pushed back 3 days. DDs first day is 10th, with a Stay and Play before that. She is the first group in due to being at the nursery. They have 2.5 weeks of part time before going full time.

Ours start on the 2and and 3rd. Half the class in on the 2nd then the rest in on the 3rd aswell so a full class in on 3rd.
They always do it this way at our school. No home visit, no transition, no stay and play. Feels harsh and I would prefer a more gentle introduction but on the other hand it is easier for working parents to manage.

I'm dreading DD having a staggered school start (next year) she'll be 5 that September, and has been in nursery 7:30-6 four days a week forever. I teach so DH will have to have time off to entertain her. I'm hoping we get a primary without too much nonsense!

'Because COVID' does in some ways make sense, get all the niggles ironed out before they stray so your not changing the rules for them after a week, but still a pain for parents.

School might not be 'childcare' but if your nursery contract has ended you're a bit stuck!

DS has a half day on September 9th, and all half days until September 17th then he's full time.